Shure Cartridge

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I bought this turntable for 7 dollars from a guy at a flea market and he said all it needs its a catridge , now this is the first turntable i have bought and i was just wondering what type of cartridge would fit on the turntable?

The SL-1950 uses a standard 1/2" mount cartridge on a standard removable headshell for S-shaped tonearms.

If you have the headshell (circled in the photo in the link below) and there are 4 good leads with small connectors for connecting to the cartridge pins on it, all you need is a cartridge.

If you don't have the headshell with leads, you'll have to purchase a headshell and a cartridge.

There are many places on the web to pick up a headshell if you need one. Here's one place. You can usually find a good quality generic one for $10.00-$15.00 US. A genuine Technics headshell will cost $20.00 + US.

http://www.garage-a-records.com/products.php?cat=127

Make sure you choose a straight headshell for S-shaped tonearms, not an angled headshell for straight tonearms if you need to purchase one. You may be able to find one cheaper on eBay.

I probably wouldn't spend too much on a cartridge for that table because it's a changer made for playing stacks of records with the optional multi-play center spindle installed. This means the rake angle of the tonearm is probably not perfect for playing 1 record and a fancier cartridge that's more revealing may just sound harsh on your table.

A couple great cartridges in the lower price range that aren't too "fussy" about setup are the Audio Technica AT95E and the Shure M97xE. You can Google these models to find the best prices. Amazon.com has been selling the Shure M97xE at a good price.

Audio Technica makes some cartridges that are even less expensive if your budget won't allow the others I mentioned. They seem to make about the best cheap cartridges. You can find various models on the site I linked to or these other sites below... I would try to at least get something with an elliptical stylus for better tracking, not a conical. And make sure you get a standard 1/2" mount or universal mount cartridge, not a cartridge that can only be used as a P-mount.

http://www.lpgear.com/

http://www.needledoctor.com/

A cartridge alignment protractor would be a good thing to have too. The cartridge needs to be mounted in the proper spot on the headshell for proper alignment of the stylus with the record grooves for best sound and to prevent damage to your vinyl. The Shure cartridge comes with an alignment tool. There are also alignment tools on the web that you can print out and use. You have to make sure they come out of your printer the exact right size. A basic Baerwald protractor should do the trick (first on page).

http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge-alignment-protractors.shtml

That's about it I think... You probably know that you'll need a phono preamp if your receiver doesn't have a special input marked "phono"? This would allow using your turntable with any standard line-level input (like "CD", "tape", "aux" or the audio portion of any audio / video input).

If you need any more help to get your turntable going, come visit me and my vinyl crazy friends on this thread. We will help. I go by royphil345 there...